April 12, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
From the Benefits Dept.: If you haven’t updated your beneficiary information in the last five years, you need to do so. You can also utilize UAW Legal Services to set up wills and trusts free of charge. You can call 636-561-2057 (Lake St. Louis) or 1-800-582-6494 (Sunset Hills).
From Bloomberg: General Motors will start producing its new Chevrolet Malibu sedan four months earlier than planned to hasten the replacement of older models. It will start making the Malibu, its top-selling car last year, next January instead of in May 2012, according to a presentation to suppliers. Michael Albano, a spokesman for Detroit-based GM, confirmed that output of the new Malibu would be moved up. The automaker's CEO, Dan Akerson, is pushing to speed development of new models to fill gaps in GM's product line. Akerson has told top executives to look at pulling ahead some vehicle introductions in the U.S., Stephen Girsky, a GM vice chairman, said in January. GM delayed some new models as it conserved cash around its bankruptcy in 2009, he said. "GM has vehicles that are toward the end of their life cycle that are selling very well," Dave Sullivan, a product analyst at AutoPacific in Troy, said. "It's not necessarily the end of the world if they have a gap, but they are doing what's required to minimize that gap. Malibu is a really important vehicle for GM."
From Automotive News: Production of more than a half million vehicles has been wiped out in Japan since the March 11 earthquake paralyzed the county's manufacturing sector. Japan's big seven automakers lost 516,000 units of output as Japan marked the one month anniversary of the devastating March 11 quake. And the total is still climbing with many plants remaining offline until later this month and those that have restarted operating at only limited capacity due to parts shortages. Toyota Motor Corp. leads the pack with lost volume of 260,000 units at its 18 domestic plants through April 8.
More Automotive News: This spring, U.S. suppliers are going to be hammered by the aftermath of the earthquake that crippled Japan's auto industry. Just in case you have any doubts about this, consider a recent survey of 103 automotive suppliers by the Original Equipment Suppliers Association. Seventy-nine of the respondents said they receive parts from Japan. Of those, only 37 percent said their Japanese suppliers had assured them they would meet delivery schedules. One third of the U.S. suppliers have been unable to assure transportation of components out of Japan. And two-thirds said their customers may cut production over the next 45 days. This disaster isn't limited to Japan.
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